Texans Make Scotch Whiskey Better Than the Scots Do

Shame on us for not seeing this sooner. A Waco distillery whooped up on the Scots in the whiskey distillin' business a month ago. They won Best in Glass, a recent whiskey competition, beating names I'm sure you'll recognize like Macallan and Glenmorangie, just to name two.

While spirits distilled from corn (bourbon) and rye (rye) have dominated American whiskey production, malts have slowly been gaining prominence, recently garnering attention on a word stage. Steve McCarthy, an Oregon-based distiller who makes a peaty single malt that bears his own name, says he gets calls from Japan requesting his entire inventory. Hopefully most of these whiskeys stay right here at home.

Balcones Distillery's single malt boasts "mellow notes of sautéed pears and ripe fruit mixed with a lingering toasty malt character," according to tasting notes listed on their website. With any luck we'll have some tasting notes here on City of Ate in the coming weeks.